What is the illusory vowel?

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The illusory vowel occurs when native Spanish speakers hear words that start with the consonant pattern /#sC/. Research has shown that as Spanish speakers become more fluent in English, the illusory vowel diminishes.
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Reasoning

Each experiment answers a different question about the illusory vowel. The two big questions are: is the illusory vowel auditory or linguistic perception; does accented speech affect the illusory vowel perception?

Methods

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We will recruit 60 participants for each experiment in Granada, Spain. Experiment 1 will use a 2IAX task. Experiment 2 will use a EnglDTE task and LexTale. Both will use language surveys. .
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Experiment 1 Stimuli Example

/escoge/ (he/she/it chooses) -> [eskohe]

In the 2IAX task, the pairs will be presented as follows:

Predictions for Experiment 1

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As auditory information is added, discrimination performance will decline. .
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Experiment 2 Stimuli Example

Predictions for Experiment 2

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The accented words will not be accepted as “real” words.
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Educational Translation

The results from these experiments will aid in understanding the perception and production of speech in second language learners. With the information gathered, we plan to work with teachers in both Spain and the US to help them understand the perception and production of second language learners, which can lead to a better understanding of how to teach foreign languages.

References

CARLSON, M. T. (2019). Now you hear it, now you don’t: Malleable illusory vowel effects in Spanish–English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 22(5), 1101-1122.